1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to knitted clothes wherein the front body and the back body are joined at the side edge portions of the knitting widths and at the shoulders, and a knitting method thereof, and in particular, knitted clothes wherein both the front body and the back body have a double-layered structure with a hollow section, and a knitting method thereof.
2. Prior Art
When the front body and the back body of knitted clothes are knitted and joined on a flat knitting machine to a substantially completed condition, sewing processes such as linking, that were needed in the prior art, can be omitted or reduced. Such technologies are disclosed in, for example, Japanese Patent Hei 3-75,656 and Japanese Provisional Patent Hei 5-51849.
Japanese Patent Hei 3-75,656 was applied by the present applicant, and it uses a flat knitting machine with two needle beds, wherein a pair of needle beds are arranged to oppose to each other, one in the front and the other in the back, and needles of odd numbers are assigned to, for example, a front fabric, and the needles of even numbers are assigned to, for example, a back fabric; thus every other needles of the front and back needle beds are used to knit a fabric in a tubular form. When the front fabric is knitted, the back fabric is made to belong to the needles of the back needle bed, and when the back fabric is knitted, the front fabric is made to belong to the needles of the front needle bed, and knitting is made with the front fabric and the back fabric being overlapped with each other, one in the front and the other in the back. With this arrangement, each fabric is always provided with empty needles for transferring on the opposing needle bed. As a result, structural patterns wherein face stitch and back stitch are mixed with each other, such as links knitting, garter knitting and rib stitch, can be knitted in a tubular form. Further, these empty needles may be used to shift a fabric sidewise to join it with an adjacent fabric. When a flat knitting machine with four needle beds, wherein one more pair of needle beds are added, one in the front and the other in the back, is used, the front fabric can be knitted on the needles of the lower front needle bed and the needles of the upper back needle bed, and similarly, the back fabric can be knitted on needles of the lower back needle bed and needles of the upper front needle bed. Thus, unlike the flat knitting machine with two needle beds, it is not necessary to assign the front fabric to the needles of odd numbers and the back fabric to the needles of even numbers.
Japanese Provisional Patent Hei 5-51849 uses another knitting method to obtain knitted clothes in a nearly completed form. According to this method, a back body is set in the middle of the needle bed, and the left and right portions of a front body are arranged on both sides of the back body, and knitting proceeds from the hem part towards the shoulders. After that, the front body and the back body are joined together at the shoulders to obtain a V neck vest that is close to completion. Further, U.S. Pat. No. 5,379,615 discloses a knitting method for knitting seamless vests.
Both methods mentioned above, however, form fabrics of knitted clothes, such as those of the front body and the back body, in the form of a single layer fabric. Hence knitted clothes that are knitted by these methods, such as vest, have the following problems. When a vest that is knitted in such a way that face stitches come to the outer surface is turned inside out and is used as a reversible one, it simply reveals the back side (back stitches of the same color) of the single layer fabric. It can not present any color, pattern or structure that is independent of those of the face side. Thus there are large restraints in design. Moreover, as the front body and the back body comprise a single layer fabric, the product lacks bulkiness of the fabric.
In the past, to avoid these problems, two single layer fabrics were knitted separately on a flat knitting machine, then they were sewn together along the side edge portions thereof to produce knitted clothes of which front body and back body are hollow in section. As a result, much time and labor were needed to produce knitted clothes of this kind.